


To save a life

by pandacheeze



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, Blood and Gore, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Devil Fruit users, Emergency room, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 17:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12237027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pandacheeze/pseuds/pandacheeze
Summary: Two men of a nationality that Law despises appear at his hospital. Of course, he refuses to patch up the one that's bleeding to death right in front of him, but then the other says..."Please. Rosi's my brother. He's all I have left."And Law is reminded that long, long ago, he was once a brother, too.





	To save a life

 

"Why the _fuck_ is there a World Noble in my ER?" Law demands, voice harsher than any tone he's ever used with his staff. His team knows how much he hates these stuck-up bastards. They had Law’s hometown burnt to the ground as some sort of sick spring cleaning, after all.

So why has Law still been called to aid this monster in the form of a man? It's impossible to mistaken the injured person's origin. He's obviously a blue blood because he's twice the size of an average person. Two stretchers have been pushed together end-to-end to accommodate his giant physique. They’re not wide enough so his arms are dangling over the sides. He's choking on his own blood, red torrents cascading down both corners of his lips like the Joker's smile. And his front, riddled with what Law was earlier informed to be seastone bullets, is bleeding so much that a nurse almost slips on the scarlet pool on the floor while they tear off his ruined clothes and attach vital sign pads here and there. What's strange is that instead of the usual white cosmonaut garb and ridiculous bubble helmet, the patient is wearing normal shirt and jeans. The shirt's littered with stupid tiny hearts, though.

Upon being yelled at, Bepo's ears fold down in distress, making him resemble a kicked puppy. His gloved paws flail as he tries to explain (or in his case, apologize).

"I'm sorry, Law. We know you don't like these people, but this guy's brother wouldn't take no for an answer. He threatened us with his Devil Fruit powers-"

"NO!! I will NOT help this scumbag! They have their own hospitals in Mariejois. Let his brother take him there. Like I'd care if this asshole dies along the way."

"Shhh! His brother's just outside-"

Suddenly there's the sound of a commotion beyond the emergency room.

"Oh dear," Shachi peeps.

Then the double doors burst forth, revealing another tall blond who has to stoop past the door frame to enter the room. Security guard Jean Bart, still grappling the guy's left leg, is dragged along the floor with each step. This World Noble is sporting weird sunglasses and normal clothes, too (albeit outlandishly pink and striped). What exactly is the catch with these two? Mariejois outcasts or something?

"Listen here," hollers the tall freak, who's now standing before Law. The front of his garments is drenched in dark red, indicating that he was the one who carried the injured here. "You WILL fix up my brother, or-"

"Or what?" Law quips, fearless even though he barely reaches the walking lamppost's midsection and has to tilt his head up so that he's practically glaring at the ceiling.

"Kill me? Massacre my assistants? Like you royal fucktards always do for fun? Go ahead. So your brother can just die and rot here along with us."

The blond snarls in frustration like a deranged animal and does some weird gestures with his hands, then Law's finds himself bound by some sort of strings. So _that's_ his ability.

Well. Two can play at this game.

Law activates his Room and swaps the strings with a box of gloves from the cabinet nearby. The harmless object falls to the floor between the two figures. The menacing blond clicks his tongue at not being able to coerce the surgeon into performing the operation.

"Will you just... Fuck... I'm paying, not begging for your help okay? Would you like me to double the payment?"

"I don't need your filthy money. Go back to where you came from!"

"We can't go back!" yells the other, bits of spittle flying from his mouth.

...

Law blinks disbelievingly, lips parted in a flabbergasted expression.

They can't go back?

Law's heard lots of stories, but this is the first time meeting real exiles from the Holy Land.

A wet gurgle is heard in the background. Sounds like the sibling coughed up another mouthful of blood. The upright blond looks over Law's head and his eyebrow ridges shift from an angry knot to a worried furrow above the pink frames. None of the staff dare to do anything much before Law allows them to.

"Look," the blond says with a twinge of panic. "Whatever shitty past you had with the World Nobles, we had nothing to do with it. We left that godforsaken hell hole three decades ago, probably even before you were born. We're not one of them anymore, so don't hold that grudge against us," he explains to Law quickly, aware that every second counts for his brother's life.

Law's lets the facts sink in, trying to be as open-minded as possible.

"So please help him. Would it make you feel better if I let you punch me? Stab me with one of your scalpels? Or do you want to see someone like me beg? Is that it?"

He falls to his knees and sits on his haunches, making himself a number of inches shorter than the standing Law. The latter takes a step back in poorly concealed shock, never has he nor anyone in this room ever seen a World Noble in such a subdued position.

"Anything. I'll do anything. _Give_ you anything. Money's not a problem. Just treat him, please."

"Please," he repeats. "Rosi's my brother. He's all I have left."

And Law is reminded that long, long ago, he was once a brother, too. A big brother who at that time still hadn't eaten the Ope Ope no Mi and thus was unable to save his sister from the amber lead disease.

He understands the pain of watching your flesh and blood slip through your fingers, of losing someone you hold dear to the bony claws of death.

If what this person says is true, than he doesn't deserve to experience the same devastating heartache that Law had undergone before. Whatever prejudice that Law holds against the snobbish country as a whole shouldn't be applied to these two runaways.

The elder blond misinterprets the surgeon's silent pondering as dissatisfaction with his offer.

"Not humiliating enough? I'm going to have to lick your shoes, am I?"

Palms on the blood-stained floor, he bends down towards Law's feet.

"I'll do it!"

Law's outburst stops the other mid-bow, the tip of his tongue almost touching Law's shoe.

"I'll... I'll do it," he repeats, as if convincing himself as well.

Before the other has the chance to say anything else, Law has the guards whisk him away from the ER so he can concentrate.

"Commence the operation," he instructs, and his teammates scramble into place. Law activates his Room and follows the routine procedure for shot patients. Use his ability to scan for embedded bullets. Pick the seastone bullets out manually. But just after he extracts the last one...

 

Beeeeeeeeep

 

No, no, _no.  
_

The patient's gone into cardiac arrest. He's lost too much blood along the way. Penguin's already preparing the defibrillator before handing the paddles to Law. He presses their flat surfaces together to evenly spread the conducting gel.

"Clear!"

Then he places the metal paddles on the patient's chest. Normally this is when the patient's body surges up, but with this guy... nothing happens.

So Law tries again, but he still gets no reaction from the unconscious patient. His staff confirm that there's nothing wrong with the defibrillator machine, so he deducts that the voltage isn't high enough to jar the humongous patient.

He gives the paddles back to Shachi, pulls his own gloves off, and puts his palms together to charge them with his powers. This technique's something that Law's never used on any patient before. It's difficult to control. Even the minimum voltage that he can generate is lethal enough to kill a man. He only uses it to revive his friends’ household appliances. But this is a special case. If a normal defibrillator won't work, maybe Law's Countershock will do the trick.

After a couple of nerve-wrecking seconds, Law roars _CLEAR!!_ and this time he really means it. Anybody still touching the patient will certainly end up electrocuted. With everyone else steered clear of the cot, Law slaps his glowing hands directly on the bloody chest. The huge torso jolts up before collapsing just as quickly once Law removes his palms. The cots shake under his weight. Dead weight. His pulse fluctuates then flatlines again on the screen.

Okay. At least Law knows that this level of electricity is enough to affect the patient, so he gives it another shot. This round, the injured man comes sputtering back to life. While the blond draws ragged breaths, Law and his team do what they need to do until the man's condition stabilizes.

Once the operation is finished, the entire ER team collapses onto tables, walls, or any other surface nearby. Law crumples up on a swivel stool with his trembling hands laid on his own lap. He beholds the scene before him. A giant lying on two lined-up cots, surrounded by the most blood that Law has ever seen bleed from a surviving patient. You could take a picture of the floor and easily claim that it was taken at a slaughterhouse that just finished offing a batch of livestock. The hem of Shachi's bottom scrubs is soaking in a red puddle, but he seems too exhausted to give a damn.

When the older blond is finally allowed to see his sibling, he silently sheds tears while petting his sleeping brother's tussled and damp hair.

 _Saved,_ Law thinks. He's saved another big brother from facing the living nightmare that he himself once had to endure. This is the day of a lot of first times for him and his team, but witnessing a (former) World Noble weep is le surpris du jour.

And it's at that moment when Law realizes that these two are as human as him and everybody else, that they bleed the same scarlet blood and cry the same salty tears.

In the end, he does charge Mr. Doflamingo more than the normal fees for a gunshot patient. Lord knows how many cotton balls, gauze pads, blood bags, and whatnot they used on his brother. Moreover, one of the cots sort of broke from the impact of Mr. Rosinante's heavy torso when they were kick-starting his heart. It's a reasonable amount of fee, though. Just enough to cover the actual cost of every equipment and service provided. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Thank you for saving him," Mr. Doflamingo says, having barged into the surgeon's private office afterward just to say those words in person. Jean Bart and his buddies were dragged along like tin cans behind some newlyweds' car again. Really, this guy makes Law’s best security personnel seem like wimpy amateurs.

For once, in talking to someone from Mariejois, Law comes up with something that's not malicious nor resentful, but rather a reply that's perfectly civil and sincere.

 

"You're very welcome."

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I confess that I have no medical knowledge whatsoever. Everything up there was from watching movies. Sorry if they don't comply with standard procedures.


End file.
